Therapeutic manipulation is utilized by therapists, such as chiropractors, osteopathic physicians, physiatrists and, in some cases, physical therapists, to realign the joints of a patient's spine. Manipulation involves the therapist applying pre-manipulative tension prior to administering an impulse to a patients joint along a predetermined vector.
FIG. 1 illustrates one example of a prior art therapeutic manipulation being administered by a therapist 20 to a patient 10. A vector of the force of the therapeutic manipulation is shown by arrow 30. Therapeutic manipulations are performed in any region of the spine and in a variety of doctor to patient positions.
The safety, comfort and effectiveness of a manipulative impulse is improved if the impulse is delivered with a high degree of speed along the plane of the joint under manipulation. However, an impulse that is delivered with too great an amplitude can injure the patient. Therapists practice manipulations in order to develop the psychomotor skills necessary to deliver high speed, controlled amplitude impulses along a given plane. One practice technique is to deliver impulses into inanimate objects. However, delivering impulses to an inanimate object risks injury to the shoulders or wrists of the therapist. Another training technique is to deliver impulses to a training partner, which risks injury to the training partner from high-amplitude impulses. In addition, for both these practice techniques, it is difficult to accurately measure the force and speed of the practice impulses.
Therefore, it is an object of the present invention to provide an apparatus and method for practicing therapeutic manipulations that is safe and which provides accurate feedback on the performance of the manipulations.